The Jakarta Post, January 23, 2007
Poso cycle of violence
Hopes were high last September that peace would last in Poso after police executed
three Christian men convicted of carrying out a series of killings in the Central
Sulawesi town in 2000.
There was a general perception among the country's leaders that such tough law
enforcement would put an end to the cycle of violence that had transformed a
picturesque town into a killing field.
However this expectation proved to be wrong. A resurge in tension was marked with
the deaths of at least 12 people, including two police officers, within the past week.
The killings came in the wake of a crackdown on terror suspects believed to have
perpetrated a string of murders and bomb attacks in Poso, including a market blast
which killed six people in 2004.
Local police said eight armed civilians and a member of the anti-terror squad died on
Monday during a shootout in the Tanah Runtuh area in downtown Poso. However, the
National Police have denied the reports, saying no civilians were killed in the latest
gunfight. Police also captured five wanted men, and shot dead two others for resisting
arrest during a raid last week.
It perhaps is too early to accuse the government of raising false hopes when
executing Christian migrants Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus da Silva and Marianus Riwu.
Poso people have been longing for peace for more than five years -- since the leaders
of Muslim and Christian communities signed a peace agreement in the South
Sulawesi town of Malino in December 2001. The agreement was thanks in part to the
active role of the then coordinating minister for the people's welfare Jusuf Kalla.
Despite the peace, the attacks went on. Late last year, the police began taking
serious measures to apprehend the people continuing the conflict. They involved
religious leaders, who identified the suspects, and police initially refrained from using
force by asking these people to voluntarily surrender. Only one suspect complied with
the request.
However, inconsistent law enforcement, as evident in the police's decision to extend
the deadline for the suspects to surrender three times, has contributed to the slow
pace of conflict resolution in the town, where security authorities were often involved in
the prolonged sectarian violence and accused of bias.
But this nation has long faced difficulties in enforcing the law -- if big-time graft
convicts can escape overseas with millions of dollars in public money, then so too
can killers.
The local police face challenges to keeping order in the town not only because they
are up against committed terrorists but also because of their long-standing reputation
as corrupt and prejudiced.
There is suspicion that an international terror network has played a role in
perpetuating the conflict in Poso. The government once entertained this possibility,
only to deny it a few days later.
What should be remembered is that Poso was just another city on the Indonesian
map until the bloodshed erupted in 2000.
With thousands of police and soldiers deployed in the town of 250,000 people, it is
hard to accept that five years have been wasted on security operations there.
One of the worst mistakes the government has made in trying to solve the Poso
conflict is by using a top-down approach and not dealing with local communities.
Without fanfare, a group of local people and civil society activists have been
attempting to emulate the peace arranged in Maluku, which was rocked by sectarian
riots just before Poso.
They are bridging communications between communities that earlier fought each
other to, in the long-run, encourage them to forgive. Such efforts, whether they
succeed or fail, deserve support from the government.
Cracking down on people in possession of arms or explosives is a must in a conflict.
But peace will only survive through continuous, genuine and people-based dialog.
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